I am in the process of applying for a Letter of Permission starting at the beginning of my third year in September. I am in MBG and was wondering if anyone in a Biology Program or otherwise has some insight into pros and cons of doing this. Or how it effects getting a thesis supervisor for fourth year. Also how it might effect applying to grad/professional schools afterwards. Really any information would be helpful to me. Also my gpa has dropped a bit and I am worried about not being able to change it since courses taken on a lop appear as pass or fail on the McMaster transcript.

I'm a little confused, are you taking courses at another univerisity for a whole year or a semester? A little more details would be helpful! Also regarding grad school, each school is different so it's best to me email schools you're interested in directly!

I'm also confused...if you get a letter of permission and take a class at another university, why/how would that have any impact on getting a thesis supervisor?
Also, it doesn't count for your Mac CA but if you apply to any professional/grad schools it will count...so it will affect that the same as any other course. What other ways were you thinking of?
I guess I'm just confused about what exactly you're doing and what you're asking...

I think they mean that their grades arent the best but want to show potential supervisors that they're doing well etc in all the courses they're taking now, including the LOP course. You can always bring a transcript from the other school to show the potential supervisor in that case. it would not effect applying to grad / professional schools MOST LIKELY, just you would obviously have to send transcripts from both schools you took classes from. the schools won't look at just the 'pass' on the mac transcript, but likely the actual grade from the other university transcript.

but you shouldn't be too worried because mol bio is has mandatory thesis I think? so you will end up with a supervisor anyways? anyways I'm not familiar with the program to know how that works.